UBS AG plans to invest US$10 million to set up Taichung and Kaohsiung branches in March next year, aiming to expand the bank's wealth management business in Taiwan, Dennis Chen (
With the addition of the two new branches, UBS aims to see its wealth management business increase by 30 percent to 40 percent annually, Chen said.
UBS currently has only one Taipei branch in Taiwan. But the bank has been facing increasing competition from its foreign rivals in Taiwan, including HSBC, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank and ABN Amro who enjoy relatively larger local networks of branches.
HSBC is expected to enjoy a network of 47 branches after it absorbs the financially-troubled The Chinese Bank (
Citibank has a network of 66 branches after it completed its acquisition of the Bank of Overseas Chinese (
In line with its expansion, the Swiss bank plans to recruit more financial consultants with backgrounds in securities, insurance and investment trust to bring sophisticated services to local customers.
These consultants, called financial advisors by the bank, will be sent to UBS' banking school in Singapore in April and July next year for further training, Chen said.
The banking school, UBS Wealth Management Campus Asia Pacific, is aimed to help provide training for the bank's wealth management financial advisors across the Asia Pacific region.
UBS Taiwan has recruited 35 financial advisors this year, after recruiting 30 last year.
Chen said the bank's employees have seen a rise in salary between 3 percent and 5 percent this year, while the best-performing financial advisors are expected to earn an year-end bonus as high as an 18-month salary.
As the market for wealth management is booming, Chen said he expected the bank's financial advisors to earn a bonus of 24-month salary next year.
The Financial Supervisory Commission in August approved UBS' application to set up the Taichung and Kaohsiung branches. At the time, the bank said it aimed to manage 10 percent of the nation's private wealth by 2015. The bank, which currently manages about 1 percent of onshore wealth in Taiwan, estimated Taiwan's wealth management market size could top US$420 billion, trailing only Japan and China in Asia.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
RSS